Volume 1, Chapter 9

Volume 1, Chapter 9

「You’ve been working alone a lot, lately. You broke up with Hiroshi, huh?」

「The team’s intact. Hiroshi-kun has to make all sorts of this-and-that’s. He hasn’t come out of the workshop in a while.」

「Heh, I’ll try my luck again, some day. Oh, right. Two each of the curry buns and corndogs, please. Oh, and two of the new cutlet skewers, too.」

「Okie dokie. That’s 1 Chrone and 20 Tirols.」

As she kept an adventurer of her acquaintance up to date, Haruna swiftly wrapped the freshly fried curry buns, and loaded up the leaf trey with the corndogs and cutlet skewers before handing them over, all at once.

「You stuff isn’t exactly cheap, but you sure sell a lot of them.」

「I think it’s because we’re the only ones to serve them in the city, still.」

When there was a little gap in customers, Haruna checked the amount left for the self-serving steak sauce and ketchup as she chatted with the owners of the food stands on either side of her. This kind of neighborly relationship was crucial to a smooth business venture. Besides, there was an important side effect of the occasional tip of information, a vital key to income as an adventurer.

「Speaking of, what other kinds of food do you have in your hometown?」

「If we’re talking more than fried food, there’s countless dishes… As for easy fried stuff, you’re looking at them.」

With that, she disinfected her hands with alcohol, and took out the potatoes she bought from the morning market along with a knife and cutting board. She chopped the potatoes down to handy sticks, and gave them a quick fry before sprinkling on salt. Haruna gave a serving to the owners on the either side.

「…Hey, this is good.」

「Makes me want to sip on something.」

「Here’s something else you can enjoy with a drink.」

She disinfected her hands again as they continued to chat, and took out the thigh cuts of a Troll Bird, which Makoto had hunted during a job while the bathroom was being renovated. After cubing the meat, she rubbed the spice (primarily soy sauce) to give it some preliminary flavor. One could see the detail in Haruna’s work by watching her disinfect a plastic-like bag before using it to rub in the seasonings. Then she dusted them in flour. After adjusting the temperature of the frying oil, she fried them twice to a golden crisp, and had her neighbors taste them.

A Troll Bird, by the way (as its name might indicate) is a large bird at over 3 meters. It’s vitality and regeneration abilities are worthy of the “troll” in its etymology. Not to mention that it glides through the air with incredible agility. An average adventurer would barely be able to defend themselves. It has wings and legs powerful enough to fly away with a horse, and its thigh and breast meat, consequently, give off a comfortable softness and texture once cooked. In fact, Troll Bird meat is out on the market as a relatively extravagant food.

「Mm. Now I really want a drink.」

「If it’s not a course meal or anything, this could be your entrée, too.」

Despite fried chicken being one of the easiest fried food, the food stand owners still chowed it down with curiosity. This was a good representation of the simple lack of fried food in Farlane.

「Those aren’t on the menu?」

A soldier, on his way home after his guard shift, had spotted Haruna tinkering with the meat behind the counter. He was practically drooling.

「Unfortunately, I don’t have enough to sell them on the stand. Two Troll Birds won’t last half a day, don’t you think?」

「I guess you’re right. What a shame.」

「Well, there’s still some left. If you buy the curry bun and cutlet skewer set, I’ll throw some in there?」

「You got yourself a deal.」

And so, the soldier was hyped into making the rather expensive purchase of two curry buns and a cutlet skewer. He gladly gave up 90 Tirols (enough for three frugal meals) and chowed down the fried bird with glee.

「Right. Have you seen any more fried food, lately?」

Haruna asked.

「No other food stand is selling them, that’s for sure.」

「The wok has been pretty popular, but the stove is the real issue.」

「I tried it at our stand, but my stove couldn’t get the oil hot enough.」

In addition to the food stand owners on either side of Haruna, a craftsman from the neighborhood (who had just bought ten corndogs), and a woman who came to buy cutlet skewers to add to her medley of vegetables, agreed with this assessment. In reality, a household magic-powered stove would have a hard time adjusting the heat to what’s suited for frying food, and burns a lot of energy in the process. An industrial stove, on the other hand, were a little too big for the woks in the market. Of course, preparing something just for this purpose would cost a little too much to make it an easy decision. Moreover, most people lacked the proper knowledge, which led to only a few brave stores trying their hands (through much trial and error) at frying food for the first time. (There were a few restaurants that already handled fried food, most of them extremely high-class). As for the food stand industry, it was unclaimed territory. One could expect the same for the development of steaming food in Farlane. Of course, no one here was even yet aware of the concept of steaming food, yet.

In Farlane, where measurements for cooking were more of an art than science, most reputable restaurants tend to keep their culinary knowledge behind their kitchen doors. As a result, revolutionary dishes or cooking methods took longer to become popularized. The secrecy only reinforced the gap in quality between expensive restaurants and the rest of the bunch, preventing the bottom line of Farlane’s culinary culture from improving. This might be the critical cause to the slow emergence of fried food stands, despite oil being readily available.

Of course, even Haruna, who wanted the cooking method to be widespread, barely shared any information about which oil to use for which dish, or how big each piece should be and how hot the oil should be and how long they should fry each dish, out of pure laziness. In actuality, she had no right to whine that there weren’t enough fried food stands in the city.

「I don’t see any dishes using curry powder, either. I told a few people how to make it…」

「The ingredients are cheap, but it just takes so freaking long to make. They’d have to sell it for an astronomical price.」

「Really?」

「That’s what my potion maker said. Oh, right. Twenty curry buns and two sets of the platter, please.」

「Coming right up!」

The assistant of a shop nearby had dropped that insight along with a big order. The platter is comprised of two each of every cutlet skewer on the menu, along with a pair of corndogs. Its price varied by day. This day, there were eight pairs, including the corndogs. Some cutlet skewers went up to 20 Tirols a pop, so this day’s platter came out to 2 Chrones and change.

Of course, the platter won’t fit on a tray, so they were drained of the last drops of oil and wrapped. Ketchup and steak sauce were self-served, so none were included here. Of course, there was proper seasoning on all pieces, and could be enjoyed without condiments.

「Here you go. Special occasion?」

「We got a big business deal. We haven’t exactly started on the project, but we’re doing a little pre-celebration with the popular stuff around town.」

「Awesome. I’ll give you a little discount them. It’ll be exactly 11 Chrones.」

「Thank you.」

「I can get you ketchup and steak sauce in a little bottle for 50 Tirols each, do you want them?」

「That would be great.」

「Okie dokie.」

She handed them a small bottle of ketchup and steak sauce. At first, they weren’t selling anything like these, but more and more customers had requested them. They had now become standard add-ons upon request. While the price may seem steep, it barely covered the cost to make the bottles. Truth be told, since Haruna and Hiroshi had no intention of creating a monopoly, they were almost hoping for someone who had tasted their food to copy it and spread the recipe around the city. Maybe then, there could be a new dish for them to taste.

The assistant bought this and that from the stands at either side of Haruna’s, and went back to the shop. After watching him leave, Haruna opened the storage box to prepare for more orders to find…

「Eesh, we’re running low!」

It wasn’t even halfway through the day, but she was running low on her stock of curry buns. Come to think of it, she remembered frying curry buns by the dozens constantly (as she chatted with customers) before making the French fries and fried chicken just now.

「I wonder why we’re so busy, today?」

「Maybe because your hours are unpredictable, lately. You weren’t here yesterday, either, right?」

「Wouldn’t that drive customers away?」

「No one else sells your stuff.」

「You’ve got a good thing going.」

Even so, Haruna’s neighbors were still laughing. They had been selling drinks that pair well with curry buns, and some palette cleansers fit for a desert after chowing down some fried food. They were selling some product of their own, riding the bandwagon. In fact, if Haruna’s sales started dropping, theirs could go down with it.

「Just a few days ago, our record was, like, 200 curry buns and corndogs each, and maybe 80 cutlet skewers… After a whole day.」

「I guess the word’s spreading.」

「Uh-oh. I should have prepped more.」

「How many you got left, by the way?」

「30 curry buns and corndogs. For the skewers, there are 10 bison, 25 spider legs, and 40 each of the rest.」

Which meant that she couldn’t sell too many more platters, today. Because of the quest they had accepted (or rather, had no choice but to accept) the day before, she was really hoping to keep the leftovers to a minimum, and Haruna was beginning to worry if she had been too stingy. Even as she pondered this, ten more customers had come and gone, taking three curry buns and a total of twenty or so cutlet skewers.

How’s it goin’?

In the midst of Haruna’s realization, Hiroshi called her.

We’re almost out of stock. We won’t last another hour.

Alright. You want me to whip some up and send ‘em to ya?

Send them? How? If you’re going to have someone bring them, I don’t think that’ll be fast enough.

I just expanded the sharin’ function to the storage box.

Another almost useless yet complex feature. A sharing function connected multiple storage spaces, so the contents can be accessed from all ends. In this case, it seemed that he had connected the food stand’s storage box with the pantry at the workshop. This should have been a feature that could only have been implemented with all sharing spaces in the same place first, but since Hiroshi had already set up a sharing connection with something else, he simply expanded it to include the storage box. With Hiroshi’s skillsets, he only needed one end of the sharing space to create multiple outlets.

Since the capacity of the shared space increased with each additional outlet, this enchantment was rather vital to some occupations. However, the catalyst was very expensive, and having an NPC cast the enchantment would almost always result in a failure. All in all, it was something an average use could only dream about. In this case, Makoto (who went and breezed through a hunting quest while she was bored) had brought home some guts that could be processed into a catalyst. So, Haruna was already aware that all of their bags were already connected to the storage room of the workshop. However, she didn’t know that the storage box at the food stand had already been connected to something.

Needless to say, knowledge of this simply broken enchantment is hidden from the public. Unlike the in-game world, it seems that not even governments in this world were aware of it. Douga would watch with envy as Hiroshi and the rest of the party would pass food and tools back and forth through their bags. Apparently, even the Knight’s Order mostly carried their provisions by foot or horse. Even if they layered the Expand Capacity enchantment to the max, an ordinary bag would not be able to carry enough supplies to last them through long battles.

No wonder there’s some stuff in here I don’t remember putting in…

So, how much do ya need?

Let me see. Hm… 30 curry buns, maybe? I think the more we have the more they’ll sell, but that should even them out with what we have left in skewers.

Alrighty.

Hiroshi began prepping the curry buns. Haruna wondered if he didn’t have to work on more tools for future gigs, but she concluded that he must have had some time on his hands since he was the one who called her. She was continuing to fry more curry buns, when…

「Gimme all your money!」

A pretty buff warrior with an experienced looked was holding up a knife of a menacing size. Judging by his looks, he wasn’t eating too well. The people around her screamed and ran, shocked. Haruna, frowning, sprung to action without a smidge of fear in her eyes.

Her movement was too fast, not only for the civilians around her, but even the robber. A faint and sharp metallic sound was heard as the people around them saw that the man’s knife had been sliced off at the handle. Haruna’s rapier, drawn out of her sheath without anyone noticing, had pieced the center of the knife’s blade, detaching it from the handle. Why did she disarm him in such a way? Simple. If the blade had flown into a bat of oil or hit someone in the crowd, it would be a disaster.

「Can I take your order?」

Haruna asked, throwing the blade of the knife into the ground and holding the rapier against his throat, holding up a smile all the while. She may look rather frail, but she could take on most any Field Boss. If a robber wanted to get anything from Haruna, they would have to at least be able to go toe-to-toe with the Chivalrous Thief Alvin.

「…One… Corndog, please…」

Understanding that Haruna was offering to let him leave unharmed in exchange for a purchase. He emptied his pockets to buy a corndog, and scrambled away with his tail between his legs. The crowd, who had been watching this ordeal, burst out in cheers for Haruna. It only took fifteen minutes after the incident for all of their merchandise, including the additional portions, to be bought up by the crowd.

「Anything scary-looking around?」

In the woods a little ways out of Wulls, Mio, Tatsuya, and Makoto (the gathering team) were checking their surroundings to see if there were any dangerous creatures lurking around the area. They were here because of the Crown Prince Layotte practically tying their hands to cure the Crown Princess Elena. They need a large amount of potion materials, namely for antidotes. So, they were out in the woods, doubling their time as training Tatsuya and Mio. While they wanted to bring Haruna to hone her Gathering skills, too, she had to stay back to get rid of their food stand stock, as things were heading in a direction where it was dubious whether or not Hiroshi and Haruna could continue their food stand business.

Today, they had to collect more than vegetation. They also had to collect some insides from monsters. So, they had found themselves in an area with relatively aggressive animals. Since they would be rather exposed while gathering materials, detecting any enemies in the area was a must, and they had to search more diligently than during ordinary quests. Although they were still near the edge of the woods, where they could still see a main road behind them. At this point, there weren’t many aggressive creatures nor any materials worth bringing home.

「Over that way, there’s some sort of big lizard.」

Mio dropped a rather scary answer to Tatusya’s question, as she pointed in the general direction of the sky.

「Which way?」

「That way.」

They squinted in the direction of Mio’s indication, but neither Tatsuya nor Makoto could spot anything like that. She was pointing up (implying that the creature was in the sky) but they couldn’t even see a bird, let alone a lizard-like creature.

「How far away are we talking, here?」

「Like, fifteen kilometers?」

In other words, well beyond how far a naked eye can see. Mio’s eyes, beefed up by Vision Enhancement skills, can see even beyond the horizon.

「Come on. You think we can see that far?」

「Sensei could, maybe.」

「Our senses aren’t heightened like yours…」

Tatusya counted. In-game, while a player’s sensory stats came into play for almost any activity, the only skills that buffed them were all of the Crafting skills and Art skills, as well as some of the Archery and Thieving skills, and maybe Detecting and Searching skills. As a result, these stats were extremely difficult to grind on purpose. Both the modifiers and the Training Bonuses for the non-Crafting and non-Art skills were much lower in comparison, making Sensory stats even more difficult to raise.

Unlike other stats that became difficult to raise past 150, it was extremely difficult to get past 100 on any Sensory stat. Most players had not reached the 150 bench mark at all. People like Hiroshi and Mio, who would chuckle at the thought of “only” hitting 300 on the Sensory stats, were legends even among the most hardcore players. Even Haruna’s stats (top third in the party) partially in thanks to her Extra Skill in Singing, were way out of Makoto and Tatsuya’s league. Tatsuya might have a shot, since he had reached Intermediate on Potion Making and Metalworking, and had been grinding his Harvesting and Felling skills. However, Makoto hadn’t even gone near those skills.

「A large lizard in the sky, huh? Doesn’t sound good.」

「What does it look like?」

「Torso’s kind of stubby. Its front limbs are webbed wings. Pretty thick legs with big claws. Poison stinger on its tail. Black in color.」

「A Wyvern…?」

「Looks like it.」

Tatsuya frowned at Mio’s response. Even though they had a considerable distance between them in Wulls, even a civilian (with the help of Speed boosting items) could travel out here and back to the city within a day. The only time a Wyvern would show up around this area in-game would be for special events.

「It sees us.」

「…Right. Their Detection range was nuts.」

「And they’re carnivorous…」

With that, they stared at each other.

「…Are we gonna do it?」

「Makoto, can you take down a Wyvern with your equipment right now?」

「Piece of cake. You?」

「My weapon’s good, at least. If I don’t take any hits, I’m good.」

After a mere confirmation disguised as a strategy meeting, Mio silently drew her bow. Despite the layers of Extend Range and Boost Penetration enchantments, it was just a bow made out of ordinary lumber. The quality of the bow made it more powerful than a large crossbow, but it was nowhere near hitting something 15 kilometers away. But, her stance to fight back seemed to have been picked up by the creature. It came charging head-on towards this group of frail prey.

「10 Kilometers and counting… 9, 8, 7…」

「We can’t burn it too much ‘cause of the materials, right?」

「Then the quickest way’s for me to cut off its head.」

Makoto declared, and Tatsuya and Mio nodded in response. Unless it was some primeval creature like a Slime, just about anything would die with its head cut off. The Wyvern wasn’t an exception. If it’s head were to be cut off, or its heart smashed, it would die for sure.

「A kilometer. Attacking.」

Staring down the Wyvern, which had approached close enough for Makoto and Tatsuya to see, Mio fired two arrows in a row. The arrows accurately pierced the joints of the Wyvern’s wings. It lost control of its wings, lost its balance, and crashed onto the ground. However, because of its fast velocity, it crashed only a few dozen meters from the party, in an open area. They were in each other’s range of attack.

「Oxygen Ring!」

Tatsuya activated a rather obscure special attack spell against the fallen Wyvern. This spell trapped the target in a confined area before generating an overload of oxygen to oxidize and/or cause oxygen poisoning on the target, or else, evacuating all oxygen from the area to suffocate it. This time, he had chosen the suffocation mode, but the Wyvern was resilient enough to even retain its consciousness. This spell would cause brain damage in a flash against a human, but the Wyvern’s anatomy seemed to protect from any immediate critical injury.

However, trapped in the confined area of the spell, the Wyvern couldn’t even roll over. Makoto mercifully decapitated the poor beast with her giant sword, which she had been happily wielding for three months now. While not as impenetrable as a dragon’s, a Wyvern’s skin was very tough. It shows Makoto’s skill that she could so easily slice through it, without so much as a grunt. Now, she didn’t get to showcase much by cutting an immobilized target, but a successful surprise attack against a single target by a spell-wielder and an archer would steal any thunder from the close-combat members in almost any situation.

「That’s a weird spell you got there.」

「It really comes in handy when I’m hunting for materials from living creatures. It preserves at least double the amount of materials compared to regular attack spells. Not to mention that the quality of the hide is much better. If I’m after some organs, I might switch up the spell depending on what I’m facing off against.」

「So you’ve played with these?」

「You could say that. I’d be helping this gal here or Hiro a lot. I did some trial and error on how to gather as much materials as possible in the least number of kills.」

「Yep. I’d definitely do the same in your shoes.」

Makoto nodded, understanding. Mio had ignored them to observe the Wyvern corpse.

「What’s up?」

「I was thinking… We get something like this, we might want to chop it up into reasonable chunks and just have Sensei take them apart.」

「Really?」

Tatsuya and Makoto remembered that, according to Hiroshi, Mio should be able to collect most of the materials from the corpse.

「Mm-hmm. Some materials are better to enchant them as soon as they’re collected.」

「Like what?」

「In case of the Wyvern, its hide, for example. And the stinger on its tail can be used to make poison or antidotes, but it needs to be processed a little when extracting it.」

In reality, most wouldn’t attempt to take down a Wyvern solo with a Player Level below 300. It was only natural that its loot required delicate handling. Of course, that was just a guideline, and a player with the right stats, skills, and/or prowess could take one down without worrying about the number of their Player Level. In fact, Haruna was only at Level 135 when she encountered one through an event. It was a close call, but she took one down on her own. In Fairytale Chronicles, as long as the player had enough Attack to punch through an enemies Armor, enough HP to not get one-hit-killed, and enough problem-solving skills, they could take care of most enemies. Of course, growing the problem-solving skills was the hard part.

「I can do it now, but if I enchant the hide, for example, it’ll be 70% the quality of Sensei doing it.」

「Then let’s just chop it up and take them home. It’ll fit in our bags, right?」

「With room to spare. Actually, he linked all our bags before we left.」

「Okay. He really puts the devil in the details, doesn’t he?」

With that, they chopped up the corpse in general parts (by each wing or limb) and stowed them in their bags. Convenient that blood stopped pouring out of the chunks as they put them away. Each hunk of meat was way bigger than the opening of the bag, but you know… Magic.

In fact, without the shared space, the materials from the Wyvern alone might have filled their bags to the brim. Despite the bags’ capacity expanded to several times their appearance, the Wyvern had a wingspan of over ten meters. To top it off, all of the materials were quite rare in these parts, so it would have been quite a waste to leave anything behind. The link allowed them to access the storage room and the storage box on top of everyone’s bags, which allowed them to pack everything away. Without this enhancement, they might have only been able to bring home the hide.

Everyone would have so much more respect for Hiroshi if he devoted himself to useful projects like this one, but alas, he often spent all of his efforts to crafting Taiyaki molds or Mixytwirly treats and all sorts of spices. That was Hiroshi Azuma’s vice, indeed.

(Sensei. Sensei.)

After chopping up the Wyvern and stowing the pieces into the bags, Mio contacted Hiroshi through the Group Chat mode on her Adventurer Card, which allowed everyone in the party to join the conversation.

(What’s up?)

(We took down a Wyvern. Can you take it apart?)

(Sure. You got a big one, didn’t ya?)

(Mm-hm. I think it was afflicted a little more than normal.)

A few seconds of silence from Hiroshi, indicating his contemplation. After a few seconds of listening to Hiroshi do some kind of work, they could hear Hiroshi answer with some nervousness:

(Somethin’ don’t smell right. Watch yourselves out there. I got a bad feelin’ ‘bout this.)

(I know. We won’t go too crazy.)

(Thanks. Y’all can just let me handle all the materials if ya like.)

(Do you have nothing else to do, Sensei?)

(Just finished up the accessories. I’m just preppin’ curry buns for Haruna-san right now.)

The group inferred that the food stand business was well. Of course, no one was surprised since they knew Haruna would be at it with her 100%.

(After I’m done with the buns, I’ll get to takin’ this apart. Guess I gotta talk to Haruna-san ‘bout how to cook Wyvern meat.)

(That’s your first thought, Hiro…?)

(Why not. No food, no life.)

Hiroshi responded with pride to Tatsuya. Although, even if it was contained to its stinger on the tail, the Wyvern was still venomous. Even without the thought that it was basically a giant lizard, most members of the party could not work up their appetite for Wyvern meat at the moment.

(In any case, we don’t know when Ray’s gonna come back with the patient. Don’t go too far.)

(We know. I think we’ll stick around for another two hours or so.)

(Alrighty.)

Hiroshi hung up after acknowledging Tatsuya estimate. Mio had already begun collecting other materials. Tatsuya joined her, leaving Makoto to keep watch. While he wasn’t as skilled as Hiroshi or Mio in this department, he had still gotten his Harvesting and Felling skills halfway through Intermediate.

After two hours, Tatsuya, Mio, and Makoto were on their way home after taking down a good number of monsters, hauling more than enough materials for the entire party.

A knock on the door. Before Elena could sit up, her servant responded:

「Who is it?」

「It’s Layotte. May I speak with my sister?」

Hearing the Crown Prince, the servant gave Elena a look, and Elena nodded.

「Please, come in.」

「Thank you.」

With a bow to Elena, Layotte entered her territory with an elegant flow. Julius followed him, as always. Elena discerned from her brother’s demeanor that there was something important he had to tell her, regarding her own wellbeing.

「I’ll prepare some tea.」

「No need. Actually, sister, I would like to speak with you alone.」

Giving her servant, who had stood up to prepare tea, a look of dismissal, Elena sat up on her bed despite the pain and sluggishness through her entire body. Her fever hadn’t gone down since she woke up in the morning, and she couldn’t even keep down medicine or porridge. Elena was feeling worse than under the weather, to say the least, but she knew that Layotte was well aware of her condition, and she knew how busy he was. Whatever he had to say, it was important.

「What is so pressing, brother?」

「Allow me a moment, as we need to make some precautions. Julius.」

「Yes, sir.」

They took out something from their pockets, and started tinkering with it. In a moment, magic filled the room, completely separating them from the outside world.

「An isolation barrier? This is quite the precaution.」

「We never know who could be listening… Or watching, for that matter.」

「I’ve never seen one that uses so much magic. Why are you going to do, go challenge a dragon?」

「According to the creator, he didn’t even put his all into it.」

Layotte interjected, and Elena failed to find her words.

「…Really?」

「After hearing what we had to say, he immediately started working on it. Seeing as he finished within half an hour, it seems likely that he barely used a fraction of his abilities.」

「Who in the world is this man, anyway?」

「He’s something called a “Japanese.” Apparently he came from the same place as Makoto. Do you remember Ernest’s apprentice? So, he is a visitor from the unknown continent, no doubt.」

That made sense to Elena. She knew enough where she wasn’t too surprised by the quality of Hiroshi’s items anymore.

「What we’ve come to talk about, sister…」

「What is it?」

「This man may be able to cure you. However, bringing the man here will prove difficult at the moment.」

「Why is that?」

「A simple reason. He claims that the treatment may be interrupted if performed here. Unfortunately, we can’t deny that possibility.」

And neither could Elena. She had more than enough reasons to suspect that. Especially the man lurking by Katrina’s side.

「So, what do I need to do?」

「They had very few requests for you. To not complain about the barren room, think of a broom closet. To clear your plate as long as you are feeling well. To not complain if the treatment isn’t going as smoothly as expected. And to not persecute any of them if their etiquette is unsatisfactory.」

「Well, I don’t know how bad the room would look, but everything else seems reasonable.」

「We were also warned to not lash out if there is nothing he can do.」

And so, Elena was faced with the possibility she was trying to avoid.

「And, what do you think?」

「If you would allow it, sister, we would like to put you in his hands. Both father and his advisor have agreed to it.」

「I can see that he is skilled at crafting magical items. Does that really mean he can heal me?」

「What would you say if he made this from scratch as you watched?」

Layotte said, as he handed his sister something. Elena looked at it, quizzically.

「A vial? There’s a lot of magic in for its size. It looks like a potion…」

「A class 4 healing potion.」

Layotte said with almost an air of nonchalance. Hearing this, Elena nearly dropped the vial.

「It’s… Authentic…?」

「It is. I had the Court Magician and Potion Maker inspect it. It is a class 4 potion. That being said, he could only make five of them. Short on ingredients.」

Hearing this, Elena closely investigated the potion in her hand. There was enough magic emanating from the vial itself that seemed too powerful to contain a mere potion. Hovering her hand over the cork, she glanced at Layotte and waited for him to nod before twisting it open a crack. She realized why the existence of class 4 potions were almost legendary. The smell that wafted out of the vial in that instance alone seemed to ease Elena of the pain from the venom in her body.

In fact, when they investigate this vial to see if it was truly a class 4 potion, someone’s minor injury had been healed, solely from smelling the potion. Then, a knight who had been critically injured during a secretive large-scale hunt two weeks prior, was healed enough to go on another quest, albeit with some aftereffects, from a single vial of this potion. There was no other potion maker that could craft such a potion while engaging in some chit-chat in a matter of minutes. Not in Farlane, nor its neighboring nations on either side, at least.

It’s worth mentioning that the ingredients for this batch of potions included the Piaranork’s processed guts. The other ingredients were comprised of various plants they had gathered when they returned to the site to gather more silk. In actuality, Hiroshi could only craft five vials not because of the lack of ingredients for the potion, but for the lack of ingredients for the vials. Of course, even Lord Layotte was oblivious to that detail.

「If a man who can craft this can’t do anything to cure you, I doubt anyone in the world could.」

「You think so…?」

Elena had to agree to that assessment. If the potion was produced from somewhere, it was still possible that this man was fooling them. But crafting the potion as they watched? There was no room for trickery there. And since the potion was effective, it wasn’t crafted just to trick them. Of course, the fact that this man could really craft a potion like this made Elena timid.

「If you have a hard time trusting them, some more information might help.」

「There’s more?」

「Aearis is quite taken with this man, and Ernest seemed to trust him more than he does most men. That being said, he seems to wander off in a world of his own to create these odd concoctions the minute you give him the chance.」

「Concoctions?」

「What I saw there were these strange cookware, but he apparently goes really nuts with food, like mysterious sweets and strange spices.」

Elena wondered if she had dismissed the promise to clear her plate too prematurely. However, she also knew that Layotte speaking to her in this manner meant that she didn’t really have a choice.

「…I see. I can’t say I’m not nervous about a few things, but I don’t really have another choice at this point, do I? I would like to request for his help.」

「Good. We’re about to file paperwork to do exactly that. We’ll be back in an hour to pick you up. Make sure you’re packed. By the way, we can’t bring your servant, just in case. You’ll have to get used to taking care of yourself for the most part. I apologize.」

「Small price to pay for my life.」

Nodding in response, Layotte disabled the item and left the room. Julius bowed, and called Elena’s servant back before following Layotte out.

「I will be leaving the castle for recovery. Please pack my things.」

「Yes, Princess. Who shall accompany you?」

「They’ll have people for me there, so there’s no need.」

Elena explained, already exhausted. The servant’s expression changed.

「I’m afraid that can’t be permitted!」

「Father and the Crown Prince have already made their decision. You understand why, don’t you?」

「…But…」

「This is an order. Deal with it. I’ll be leaving in an hour. Please hurry.」

「Allow me to accompany you, at least!」

Shaking her head at her servant, Elena urged her to pack. The servant protested further to Layotte when he came to pick up Elena, even putting her life on the line in the process. Alas, both Layotte and Elena didn’t budge. Elena departed, feeling a small ping in her heart.

「What are you doing?」

When Layotte walked into the grounds of the workshop, Hiroshi was taking apart some sort of large monster. Judging by the dark hide hanging beside him, it appeared to be a reptile.

「Howdy, Lay. That was fast.」

Hiroshi responded, without looking up from his work. It didn’t look like something he could detach himself from at the moment.

「…I can’t think of anyone else who would speak so candidly with us, with or without permission.」

「Ain’t a problem, is it? Let’s leave our titles at the door, here.」

Elena, still in Layotte’s arms, couldn’t believe her ears as she heard her brother nicknamed “Lay.” Not only did this man address royalty in such a crude manner, he jumped and scurried away from her as soon as he had turned around. A very disrespectful man, indeed. Elena was aware that she wasn’t much more than skin and bones at the moment, and knew that she would be hard to look at, but this wasn’t an acceptable attitude towards any stranger. Still, the fact that Hiroshi acted this way knowing that they were royalty showed respectable gusto. Elena couldn’t help but acknowledge that despite her groggy mind.

「So, what were you working on?」

「Huh? Oh. Makoto-san’s party took down a Wyvern, so I’d been taken it apart. Haruna-san’ll be back with food pretty soon, so I had to get the venom out of the meat. ‘Course, we gotta let it mature for a bit, so it ain’t like we can eat it today or anythin’.」

「A… Wyvern? A black Wyvern? Where did it appear? Have they told you?」

「’Round the foothills of Spirit Spire Mountain. It looks like this one’s a little more afflicted than normal.」

The prince and princess froze at this ominous revelation. Disregarding them, Hiroshi continued:

「So, she’s the Second Crown Princesses?」

「…Yes. My sister, Elena.」

「Alrighty. Well, we got a room for her. It ain’t fancy, though. You mind bringin’ her there?」

「After you.」

Hiroshi navigated them to a room that was in no way extravagant, but not filthy, either. The room was large enough to take care of at least one patient, adorned with well-made furniture, which were arranged tastefully. A single, elegant flower in a vase on the windowsill welcomed Elena.

「Alrighty. Mio’ll be back soon, so we’ll take a good look at her, then.」

「You won’t look at her now?」

「…And lay a hand on her? You wanna torture me?」

This response confirmed something within Elena, who had noted his previous reaction. She timidly asked:

「This may be a little personal, since we just met, but are you…?」

「Afraid of women? Yeah. Enough so that I’d be happy if I never come near one for the rest of my life.」

「…I’m sorry to be such a burden.」

「Nah, don’t sweat it. We gotta help each other. Right, let’s do formal introductions, shall we? I’m Hiroshi Azuma. I’m the one who makes stuff. If ya need somethin’, I can make it. Except for underwear and such. Just let me know.」

Elena responded to the belated introduction with a light bow.

「That reminds me, I heard that Ernest… Or Rayna, rather… Offended you terribly…」

Layotte started.

「It’s all over now, don’t worry ‘bout it. Don’t look like she’ll do somethin’ like that again.」

「However…」

「You’re short-staffed, ain’t ya? And she seems like the stoic type to beat herself up more when we’re just nice to her, instead of blamin’ her for nothin’. She fakes it well durin’ meals and all, but she looks mighty uncomfortable durin’ the day. She’s been punished enough.」

At this time, Rayna didn’t seem to trust herself around Hiroshi. She would barely speak to him other than to ask if there was something she could do, and telling or asking him for any information that needed to be communicated between them. On the other hand, she never complained once to any request from Hiroshi. She went so far as to volunteer for unpopular chores, like cleaning bathrooms and taking care of sewage.

If this was anyone else, people would think that she might be faking it, but Rayna was worse at deceit than Hiroshi. Even Haruna, who was unsure of the situation for the first few days, now proactively tried to make everyone forget the whole thing happened. Rayna Northstone was a girl who acted upon her honest emotions, for better or for worse.

「In any case, Doul would rip her a new one if he thinks she hadn’t learned her lesson. I don’t plan on sayin’ nothin’ ‘bout that.」

「I see. Then I’ll speak to Ernest, soon.」

「It’s your prerogative.」

With a swift end to the conversation, Hiroshi contemplated something as he prepared some tools. He began to explain what was going to happen next. While the prince and princess still felt remorse, they decided to take advantage of Hiroshi wanting to move on, and prepared to observe information regarding the treatment.

「Well, we’ll do a former examination later, but let me ask ya some questions, now. Oh, by the way, Lay.」

「Yes?」

「I could use some of your sister’s blood to look into the venom. Can ya handle it? She can take an unclassified potion to heal once it’s done.」

「…I’ll give it a try. What should I do?」

「So…」

While Layotte had never “taken blood”, he could locate veins. He followed Hiroshi’s instructions to poke a needle in his sister’s vein, before extracting some blood and handing it over. Dipping some sort of substance he took out from his pouch, Hiroshi continued with his questions:

「It’s like Elle said, for the most part.」

「Elle?」

「An alias for Princess Aearis. We can’t go callin’ our refugee by her real name, can we?」

Elena nodded in agreement.

「In any case, you seem to have become very close with my siblings. They both let you call them by such strange nicknames.」

「Well, we did save Elle’s life, albeit by chance. As for Lay… I got a feelin’ it’s ‘cause we’re one in the same, in a sense.」

「One in the same, you say? I see.」

「One in the same.」

Hearing Hiroshi’s explanation and Layotte’s grinning response, Elena couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. While she felt bad for Hiroshi, it was a serious issue for the royal bloodline that Layotte was one in the same as Hiroshi. While Layotte’s wasn’t as severe as Hiroshi’s (to the point where he could go his whole life without any female interaction) he still had pretty severe trust issues and distaste for anyone of the opposite sex, outside of the family.

「Speakin’ of, it ain’t like you were roped into this weird cohabitation. Ya doin’ real good with Haruna-san and Mio, for example. Elle was real surprised.」

「Mio is a child, by all means. No one in their right mind would see her as a woman.」

「How ‘bout Haruna-san?」

「She is one of the most feminine person I know… But at the same time, she doesn’t act that way. I couldn’t be on edge around her if I tried.」

These two couldn’t see a dark side in Haruna, like they did in many women. It’s not that her actions didn’t reflect a feminine mind (she knew when to be calculating and when to be realistic) but Layotte didn’t see the dark side he often saw in women that clamored for power. He presumed that it had to do with the fact that Haruna had a very honorable code, deep down.

「In any case, both Haruna and Makoto are very respectable people. Despite my distaste for the female gender, I’m not so stupid as to keep these people away just because they are women.」

「I see what ya mean. Mm. That should be enough.」

With that Hiroshi took out this and that which he had been dipping in the blood sample, and examined it with a serious expression.

「As expected.」

「You mean…?」

「It’s poison, no doubt ‘bout it. But Emilrad…? It ain’t the easiest option, for sure.」

「Emilrad?」

Layotte asked, as serious as ever. He had never heard of such substance.

「A deadly poison. Tasteless, odorless, and colorless. It don’t even react with silver, which is rare for a poison. It’s somethin’ made only to kill. The thing is, puttin’ a lethal dose in anythin’, food or drink, would make it real obvious, since it won’t mix well. If ya did end up puttin’ it in your mouth, you’d gag it out before ya could swallow it. So, it takes some finesse.」

「What do you mean?」

「For example?」

「Lessee. The sure fire way would be to drip a drop in ya afternoon tea or somethin’. It would take about a month.」

「They could put the droplets on the tea leaves?」

「Yeah. And at that dose, no taster would catch it.」

While Hiroshi said so, he didn’t believe that the poison was administered through food or drink. Not entirely, anyway.

「The thin’ is… That would get the princess for sure, but it would also poison other people, most likely. Most likely, it was another way.」

「What are you thinking?」

「It’s absorbed through skin, too. So it could have been spread all over somethin’ that no one else uses. Small doses could have been dropped into her cosmetics and perfume, too.」

「Which means…?」

「Unless the perp’s got super-human powers, it was a group effort.」

The two members of royalty fell silent. This was the worst case scenario.

「We’re cuttin’ it close, but I can do the treatment. The thing is…」

「What is it?」

「The symptoms are pretty advanced. I think they’ll be some serious aftereffects. The other thing is, in order to take care of this poison outright, I need a material that’s hard to come by.」

「Tell me. What do you need?」

Layotte asked, frowning. What could it be?

「A fruit called Solmizen. It’s pretty common in the highlands year-round, but it’s got a mighty short shelf-life. It starts rottin’ less than a day after harvest, at best. Within two days, it’ll be completely useless. It don’t taste too good, and it needs to go through a time-consumin’ process before it can be used medicinally. To top it off, it takes serious skill just to pick it. So, for the most part, no one wants it. Wulls may be the number-one tradin’ city around, but I doubt you’ll find somethin’ this obscure at any market.」

「Year-round, you said?」

「It’s in- bloom year-round, so yeah.」

Hearing this, Layotte made a snap decision.

「Then, I’ll have someone pick some. What do they look like?」

「In that case, it’d be quicker to get our collection team on it. Still, I’ll let ya know what it looks like, so you can check the markets, just in case.」

「Absolutely. I’m entrusting you with my sister.」

「I’ll do my best. I give ya my word.」

With a nod in response to this, Layotte took down the characteristics of the Solmizen fruit, and used a transportation spell to get out of there. After watching him leave, Elena turned to Hiroshi.

「What kinds of aftereffects?」

「Feebleness, overall. Without more treatment, you won’t be able to live a healthy life like ya did before.」

「So there are some things I can do?」

「Yeah, I prepared some stuff for that.」

Hiroshi took some more trinkets from his pouch.

「This ring increases your Stamina. These earrings boost your vitality. There’s other junk to boost your vitality and whatnot. That, combined with a Stamina Potion should get you walkin’ right now. You should be able to digest some of of it.」

「…These are enchanted with powerful spells. Who in the world are you?」

「Just a craftsman.」

Of course, that wasn’t an acceptable answer for Elena. Chuckling at the sight of her, he called over Aearis, who had returned (just missing Layotte) and began to dispel the illusionary spell on her.

「Oh Elena, you look…」

Aearis, upon entering the room to see her sister, fell speechless at Elena’s obviously abysmal condition.

「I let my guard down, to be honest. I never expected anyone to try and poison me. I’m just your back up at the moment…」

「I’m so sorry…」

「Aearis, my sweet sister. Why should you apologize?」

She pulled Aearis close, holding her head and stroking her hair. While it was clear that Aearis was in no way responsible for what had happened, it was still very true that Aearis was an integral part in the incident.

「We’re gonna start with gettin’ your sister well enough to live her day-to-day life. After that, we can work on gettin’ ya back where you belong, without gettin’ you in trouble. That cool with y’all?」

「I agree. Of course, Father and the Crown Princess can handle most of that. I’m just a powerless back-up, after all.」

Elena said, matter-of-factly. All things considered, she seemed completely content with receiving treatment here.

「Alrighty. I think Haruna-san’s home. Let’s get ready for dinner.」

With that, Hiroshi descended to the kitchen, leaving Aearis behind to watch over her sister. Elena’s dinner that night was a vegetable-broth soup, with a soy sauce and dashi base, with no solids. The gentle flavors slowly seeped into her weakened stomach, beginning to heal her with every drop.